Court irked at secretaries' failure to release funds to LUH.

HYDERABAD -- The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday expressed displeasure over provincial secretaries of health and finance for their failure to release required funds to Liaquat University Hospital (LUH), Hyderabad, and allowing the administrative issue of funds release to end up in court.

The division bench comprising Justices Karim Khan Agha and Faisal Kamal Alam said while hearing a petition filed by LUH's additional medical superintendent (AMS) Dr Shahid Islam that the court was concerned over the fact Rs575m meant for the LUH had not reached the facility.

Justice Alam asked secretary of health Syed Zulfikar Shah and secretary of finance Sajid Jamal Abro why they did not help release funds and wondered why this petition had to be filed in the first place. Such internal matters of departments should have been handled by the secretaries themselves, he said.

The finance secretary said that funds were released in September 2021 but these could not reach the hospital as the health department's tendering process was hit by delays. He produced a copy of finance department's June 23 approval of Rs550.652m abstract bill for LUH.

The petitioner's counsel's Ishrat Lohar said that the court's earlier order had...